Ping-pong balls

Yesterday's incident reminded me that on this journey of raising an autistic child, there is no time to rest on one's laurels. Although Ian has been in a relatively peaceful place for a bit now, there isn't a point when you can say "Ah, now we're set and everything will be fine." It's more like that old adage that life is like being in a bathtub full of ping-pong balls. You think that you finally have all the ping-pong balls nicely settled, and then you move your pinky and *boink*, up pops a ping-pong ball.

John and I live in a bathtub full of ping-pong balls. Here is what happened.

Ian attends a Christian fellowship group for disabled adults every Tuesday evening. This gives John and me extra time in the evening to collect our wits and relax. We did that last night, but right before Ian came home, his caregiver called with the news that Ian had attacked her. He suddenly just lost it, lunged for her and grabbed handfuls of her hair with both hands. She was able to disentangle herself, and he seemed to be fine after that.  He went to the fellowship group with no further incidents. John and I were wary when he returned home, but he seemed happy if extremely hyper. I mean this kid was bouncing off the walls! He is usually very active, but last night he was manically screeching, running, laughing, and slamming doors and cabinets. We gave him his nighttime meds, hoping that would calm him down, but no go. He was still a pterodactyl-imitating tornado. Finally, we went upstairs to "go under" hoping that would calm him. It seemed to be working until I took a toy he was holding from his hand, and then he lost it. He started kicking and yelling, and I had to beat a hasty retreat to the spare room to avoid getting hurt. I came back after a few minutes to help John cover him with a blanket and calm him. This requires lots of eye contact, body pressure ("squishing") and soothing words of comfort. He did finally calm down, but it was about midnight before he was quiet.

Those ping-pong balls were just a-flyin' everywhere last night. I think I found one under the couch this morning.